


Future Imperfect

by meyari



Category: Smallville
Genre: Alternate Reality, Future Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-02
Updated: 2009-12-02
Packaged: 2017-10-04 02:37:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meyari/pseuds/meyari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Clark Kent had a twin brother?  How would that change his relationship to his parents, his destiny and most importantly to Lex Luthor?  And what would it do if that twin disappeared?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Future Imperfect

**Author's Note:**

> This is one version of the twins that I've written. Others will be posted as well. Also, be aware that this is older writing. #^^#

"Beautiful work, Sol, just beautiful!"

"So expressive, so masterful! You're really improving, Mr. El."

Sol-el smiled graciously at the gushing praise, passing through the crowd like a Greek god. It was so much nonsense and Sol knew it. They'd be writing up how he was a tattooed mercenary thug dressed in black who seduced the rich to get them to buy his unskilled paintings in the morning. Some of the reviewers might admit that there was some faint glimmering of talent in the upstart painter Solomon El, but most would write scathing reviews with little or no substance. The ones with substance Sol would carefully clip, study, learn from and frame on his wall so that he would remember to learn something from everyone.

"Joe?!"

The word was a bark of shock and surprise that Sol-el carefully ignored utterly, pretending that he hadn't heard it or that it didn't connect to him. The hand that next clamped down on his arm demanded attention, so Sol turned and looked down at Lex Luthor, who he'd known would inevitably come to one of these showings someday.

"Joseph Kent?" Lex repeated, staring up at Sol with an expression of confusion and surprise that was more or less hidden behind the practiced mask the Lex always wore.

"I'm sorry," Sol said, an equally practiced mask of amusement and confusion on his face, "But that's not my name. I'm Solomon El. And you are?"

He offered a hand to shake to Lex, which Lex studied for a moment and then took. It was a good firm shake, for a human, and Sol returned it with a similarly firm shake, a polite look of curiosity and a slight cock to his head that he was waiting for an introduction.

"Lex Luthor," Lex replied, eyes searching Sol's face for any sign that Sol knew him.

"Mr. Luthor!" Sol said, putting on his best hungry-artist-spotting-a-rich-patron manners that the reviewers loathed so much, "Such a pleasure to meet you! Really, I had no idea that you'd be there tonight or I would have made an effort to seek you out. Tell me, do you have an opinion about the show?"

Lex nearly recoiled from the sudden change in Sol's demeanor though he controlled it well. Sol privately congratulated himself on distracting the man at least a little bit. He'd have to be careful playing this game with Lex. Lex had never known Joe as well as he'd known Clark, but they had associated and flirted with each other and it was always possible that Lex, the most curiosity driven person Sol had ever known, would see past the mask he presented to the heart of the matter.

Sol-el was Joe Kent. Joe Kent was Sol-el. And Joe Kent was not a human and thus very useful to Lex Luthor in his 'games' against Clark, Joe's twin.

"It's … interesting," Lex said, turning away to study the paintings carefully arranged on the walls around them. "Quite diverse. You have a very unique style."

His voice said that he might have been interested in the art when he arrived but he wasn't anymore. Sol's senses told him just how little of the art he was seeing as his mind spun around trying to find a way to find out Solomon El's secret. Heart rate, digestion, electrical impulses through his brain, all these traces said that Lex was confused. And quite driven to find out the answer to the implied question that Solomon El posed by his sheer existence.

"Why thank you," Sol purred, just a little too close to Lex, speaking a little too seductively to be thanking him for the weak compliment. "Of course, you do realize that all the reviewers are now writing hook lines something on the order of 'With brazen cheek, the upstart young artist seduced the renowned Lex Luthor out of several thousand dollars in exchange for a shoddily painted canvas or two', don't you?"

Lex barked a laugh, turning to grin up at Sol with honest amusement in his eyes. Sol had missed that laugh, the look in Lex's eyes since he had gone on his mission. It had been years since Joe Kent disappeared into the rock wall of the Kawatche caves and never returned. He had returned, of course, just three days after Clark had. But his mission had been too important and too dangerous for him to risk Clark's health or his parent's lives. His father's death had nearly broken Sol's resolution to stay away. All of Clark's struggles at being alone had been torture, while simultaneously feeding a part inside of him that was still angry at Clark. They were twins, no matter how conflicted their relationship had been, and being apart from each other had been difficult but being apart from Clark was what was keeping Clark safe.

It also kept him away from his eternal temptation, Alexander "Lex" Luthor. That one kiss before he disappeared had only made the fire burn brighter in the years since. Sol excelled at pining at a distance for the one he loved, Sol thought sourly while keeping it all off of his face so that Lex wouldn't see it.

"They are, are they?" Lex said, hiding his grin behind a sip of his wine.

"But of course," Sol said, grinning behind his glass of sparkling cider. "They've been waiting to see who I'd descend on. And if we went in a back room they'd instantly add something about seducing you out of your pants, too."

Sol didn't get the laugh he'd expected out of that comment. Instead he got a smoldering look that made him glad he'd chosen a long dress coat for tonight's affair. He instantly regretted the use of the word 'affair' as Lex ever so faintly licked his lips and sent a wave of arousal through Sol.

"They would, would they," Lex purred at Sol, the words very much a statement, not a question. "Are you sure you want to disappoint them?"

"Why, Mr. Luthor," Sol said with an equally smoldering look that made Lex catch his breath and start turning red, "I never disappoint."

"Call me Lex," Lex said, voice suddenly husky.

They danced around each other all night, teasing, flirting and seducing each other through jokes, looks, casual touches and occasion discussion on art and the nature of consciousness. Lex didn't buy anything but it was clear that the reviews would be written the way that Sol had described, no matter what had actually happened on the purchase register. Sol watched Lex's slim figure as David, his assistant went over the sales figures for the event as everyone was filing out.

"Sold every painting," David was saying happily. "These events are so good for you! You're going to have to get to work on the next batch, of course, but at the speed you work it shouldn't be a problem. So are you going to haul him off and ravish him or what?"

Sol grinned at David.

"Do I detect a bit of jealousy in that question?" Sol asked, sipping at his glass of cider to hide his teasing grin.

"Please, my wife would castrate us both," David snorted, rolling his eyes. "Just get a room and don't do anything here. This is a respectable venue and I won't have you offending the management by carousing in the back rooms."

"Yes, sir," Sol said, breath catching as Lex turned and looked at Sol from across the room. It was as though no one else was there in that instant, until David snorted and nudged Sol in the side.

"Go on," David sighed, "Get it over with. Have your fun for a night or two and then get back to normal."

Sol didn't answer that. His track record said that David was right. He rarely had a lover, either male or female, that lasted longer than a week. But this was Lex. He set his glass down and crossed the room, feeling like a lion hunting his prey or maybe like Lex was reeling him in with his eyes like a fish on a lure. Sol hadn't gotten over Lex for nearly a decade now, but no one knew that. His background story as Solomon El included people to play his foster parents and some childhood friends. Solomon El was not and could not have been in love with Lex Luthor for nearly a decade. Of course, for almost half of that it had been Joe Kent who'd been in love as Sol had not yet existed.

"Hungry?" Lex asked, setting his drink down on a passing tray. His question had little to do with food.

"Starving," Sol replied, "Care to join me?"

"I thought you'd never ask," Lex replied.

Lex's limousine was a semi-private venue that was instantly utilized for furthering their 'needs'. Lex was still as trim as he'd been when Sol had been Joe and in High School. They'd started with undoing pants when the limo stopped and Lex groaned.

"Just a little longer would have been nice," Lex muttered, letting Sol button his pants back up.

"Agreed," Sol said, capturing his lips for a soul-searing kiss that nearly made Sol forget about that first, forbidden kiss in Lex's 'obsession' room.

The elevator ride to Lex's penthouse was too short but blessedly the distance from the door to his bed was just short enough. Their shirts disappeared and they descended into the bed. Sol barely noticed as Lex's fingers traced down his ribs and then into his own pants. Sol was too busy capturing and raping Lex's mouth. The little box with Kryptonite tore Sol away from his arousal and crashed him back to reality.

"So I was right," Lex said simply watching as Sol shuddered and moaned under the evil green glow.

"Damn it," Sol ground out, extending his tattooed hand and sucking the radiation right out of the Kryptonite, "It's too soon for this!"

Lex edged back, staring as the stone faded to a clear white crystal and Sol's tattoo changed. It covered his left arm from the knuckles up to his ear. The Kryptonian writing shifted and moved, returning to the orientation for Joseph Kent as it dealt with the energy of the Kryptonite. Joe shuddered and sighed, running a hand through hair suddenly too long, staring at the blue streaks that framed his face for a second before turning to glare at Lex.

"Damn it, Lex!" Joe snarled, "Can't you leave well enough alone? I can't come back yet, my mission isn't done!"

"Mission?" Lex asked, eyes wide.

The answer to that simple one-word question took Joe nearly two hours. They didn't touch, not now, not with the powerless crystal sitting between them like the Great Wall of China. Lex knew by now what he and Clark were, so Joe didn't have to hide that. He knew about Krypton. He knew about the AI in the caves. He knew about the Fortress that Joe had never visited. But he didn't know what had happened to Joe and that was what Joe explained.

Joe sighed, tucking his too-long hair behind his ears. Before that first and last kiss in Lex's mansion, Joe had spent a year listening to Jor-el in his head and letting go of his life as a 'human'. He'd tried to win Chloe away from her love for Clark only to realize that he was just another copy of Clark in her mind. Before that last kiss with Lex, he'd gone to her, tried to get her to see him one last time. Instead, she'd ranted about Clark's latest oblivious stupidity with her, then torn his heart out, stomped on it, chopped it up, put it in a blender and then poured what was left back in his chest by making it clear that he was nothing but a substitute for Clark to her. Lex had winced at the description, having been through his version of that pain with his various fiancées, wives and lovers.

Joe continued with Clark's rant about the 'obsession' room and his determination that Lex was his undying enemy. Lex sighed, not surprised by the description of Clark's anger and disappointment. They'd fought often enough over the last several years for him to know how Clark felt. But Lex was surprised that Joe had gone to see it to see if he was part of the obsession. That Joe had barely entered into Lex's obsession had torn Joe's heart out again. Lex's eyes apologized though his lips stayed firmly shut.

Lex listened fascinated as Joe described the digital reproduction of Krypton that had existed inside of the cave's AI. Joe had been happy there, with his birth father's blind stubbornness and his birth mother's acceptance, even if they weren't real. Clark had been furious, miserable and had left the instant he could. The transmission error that wiped his memory on return to the real world was what had prompted the creation of Joe's tattoo and his alter ego of Solomon El. Joe's mission to eliminate specific metas and escaped Kryptonian threats had been too important to risk the possibility of a transmission error.

"I was sure he'd killed you," Lex admitted finally. "It's why I've fought him so hard."

"No, I killed me," Joe said, sighing and leaning against the headboard. "My mission was too dangerous, Lex. Clark and I … we've never been the same since he ran away to Metropolis. I love him dearly but I can't trust him, not after he nearly killed me. It was better to stay away, but to stay away I had to be someone else."

"You didn't know me," Lex said, looking away.

"Of course I knew you," Joe said, "Or more accurately, Sol knew you. He knows everything that I know. He's just a different person. Far more driven, far more focused, far less softhearted than I am. He could take the anger and pain at what Clark did to me and use it to stay away. I can't. He can fight and kill if he needs to. You know I can't kill, not even to save my own life."

Lex kept looking away, sighing. He looked heart-broken that finding the answers to Joe's disappearance had been so simple, come so easily. Joe wanted to reach out but he couldn't. Sol could do it. Joe couldn't. Sol was as wild and open about his choices in life as Joe was shy and retiring.

"I have to go back to being Sol," Joe said quietly. "It's nice to be back, but it's too soon. I have two more targets that I have to catch before I can be Joe again. Besides, this version of Joe is incomplete. Has to be or I can't go back to being Sol. It's been nice seeing you again after all this time Lex, but Joe needs to be gone for a while longer."

"Will you come back?" Lex asked, eyes bright but the emotion behind them unclear to Joe. Sol would know what he was thinking, but Joe didn't. He couldn't read Lex as well as Sol could.

"Of course," Joe said, snorting. "And then there'll be a tearful reunion with Clark and Mom, quickly followed by recriminations that I didn't come home, that I missed Dad's funeral, Mom's election, everything that's happened. Pretty soon, Clark and I'll be fighting again and Mom will have that tight look around her lips and eyes that say that she wishes she'd only had one son, not two."

Joe closed his eyes, head resting on the wall. He knew it would happen. Clark hadn't changed enough that it wouldn't happen. Joe had changed, enormously, and Clark hadn't. Clark still wanted Joe to be who he'd been through grade school and Junior High. Joe's efforts to become his own person in High School had been what had started the hard times between the two of them. The directions that Joe had gone would tear Clark apart. Until Clark changed, let Joe be his own person, lost a little of his selfishness, a little of his belief that they were one, not two, it couldn't change. Lex's hand rested on Joe's knee, making Joe fight tears through a weak smile.

"I'm sorry I messed it up," Lex said quietly.

"It's all right," Joe said, equally quietly, his hand resting on Lex's hand. "It's nice to have a friend who knows. Who understands what it is to be Clark's enemy. After all, being Naman and Segeeth isn't easy."

"No, it's not," Lex said bitterly.

Joe triggered the tattoo and his personality base shifted with it. His body shifted a little, too. Different powers were inherent in different configurations of the tattoo. There were other abilities now, things that Clark could only dream of. His spine lengthened, making Sol a good two inches taller than Joe, as well as slightly shifting the color of his eyes towards grey. Sol took a deep breath, squeezing Lex's hand gently.

"You're not Segeeth, Lex," Sol said, his voice deeper than Joe's, more mature than Joe's.

"Of course I am," Lex said, smiling at Sol, though the smile didn't hold any of the sexual promise it had earlier. "Who else would it be?"

"Me," Sol said, perfectly calmly and with utter conviction.

+++++

"You're Segeeth?!" Lex said, breath catching in his chest as he stared at the perfection of Sol-el.

Of all the surprises that Lex had expected when he took the fledgling artist Solomon El back to his penthouse, finding out that Lex wasn't Clark Kent's destined enemy certainly hadn't been one of them. He'd been certain that Sol was Joe. He'd been certain that he'd finally learn what happened to Joe, all those years ago. It was mandatory for Lex to know. He couldn't let it go, not after everything that had happened.

Lex had spent the years since Joseph Kent's disappearance kicking himself for not stopping Joe as he'd walked out of Lex's mansion and apparently out of life itself. Lex had convinced himself that Joe had gone home, told Clark that he was in love with Lex and Clark had lost it. Given the fight the twins had after Lex's marriage to Helen, given how close Joe had come to death that time, Lex had believed that it was quite probable Clark accidentally killed his twin brother and somehow covered it up. He'd been unable to believe Clark could hurt Joe at first but after their fragile romance collapsed into bitter fighting and enmity, it seemed logical. Clark hid so much from the world that hiding an accidental murder was almost minor.

Lex had barely been able to believe it when he returned from the island and found Joe in a coma and Clark a just-barely returned runaway teen. When Joe had confided that Clark was the one that had put him in that coma after battering him bloody, breaking nearly every rib in his body and then leaving him unconscious and bleeding, it had shaken Lex's confidence in Clark.

Not a good thing, given his state of mind at the time.

Not a good thing a year later, when Joe utterly disappeared. Unlike Clark, who left trails of his presence in the world for anyone to find, Joe was gone. It was as though he'd been killed and buried in a secret grave somewhere, which Lex came to believe was the truth, no matter what Clark said. Clark's desperation to find his missing twin had been painful to Lex as he wavered in his faith in Clark, trying to retain their friendship and failing. They'd become lovers briefly, then fought and reconciled a dozen times in the years that followed, never quite able to forgive and forget, not with Joe gone so mysteriously.

But a couple of months ago he'd heard through an acquaintance about a new artist on the market and the description of Sol El had piqued his curiosity. Then he'd seen a picture of the flamboyantly bisexual artist and known. Somehow Joe had run away so thoroughly that he hadn't been found. Several private investigators later, Lex had been confused but still convinced that Sol was Joe. Sol's identity was so complete, so detailed, that he had to have had help creating it. But no one could be found who had done it. Lex had wavered for nearly a month, trying to find more information without letting Clark know what he was up to. If Joe had run away to flee his twin's abuse, Lex wasn't going to betray him again.

Going to the show had been Lex's last chance at redeeming his mistake all those years ago. He'd go, verify with his own eyes whether Solomon El was or was not Joe Kent. He'd gone convincing himself that it wasn't. Every shred of evidence said it wasn't. Different height, different eye color, different personality, different background, different art style, it couldn't be true.

But as soon as he'd seen Sol he'd known it was true.

No doubt.

So they'd begun their dance of seduction, Lex now convinced that someone had wiped Joe's mind and implanted Sol in his place. Having done things like that, Lex knew it was possible. The kryptonite had been his way of immobilizing Sol until he could call for someone. The disposal of the kryptonite and restoration of Joe's mind had told him he'd been limiting his imagination. The ensuing explanation had widened his understanding of Joe / Sol and Clark.

But this! Joe Kent was Segeeth to Clark Kent's Naman?

"Most certainly," Sol said, shrugging. "Have you read that prophecy, Lex? It doesn't say Segeeth is Naman's friend or lover or anything like that. It says 'brother'. You are not Clark's brother. I am. I am Segeeth. He is Naman. Very straightforward. That's actually the only part of the prophecy that is straightforward."

"The whole prophecy seems pretty straightforward to me," Lex said, wondering if he should put a shirt back on. They hadn't touched since he'd pulled the kryptonite. It might be for the best.

"That's because you're reading it in English," Sol said with a grin that was every bit Joe's wicked grin, the grin that had startled Lex into thoughts of seduction years ago. "I read it in Kryptonian and unlike Clark, I actually have a proper understanding of all the meanings of the words. It's not at all as clear as it seems in English."

He waved his hand and the prophecy appeared floating in midair next to the bed they lounged on, Kryptonian writing above, conventional English translation below. Then Sol waved again and the English bloomed with synonyms for most of the words. A flick of his fingers and suddenly there were 30+ versions of the same prophecy floating in front of Lex's surprised eyes.

"There's actually 57 different possible translations of the prophecy," Sol said academically, "But only these 37 make sense linguistically. Of these 37, only 9 make sense given events that have happened so far."

The other translations faded away, leaving nine that resolved themselves into columns of three. Sol sat silent as Lex read them over, comparing them for similarities and differences. In one column, Naman and Segeeth were the strongest of allies, working together. In the second column, they were neutral towards each other, neither helping nor hindering each other. And in the third was the translation Lex was familiar with, where Naman and Segeeth were bitter enemies.

"Interesting," Lex said, the word not even approximating his intense curiosity. "You're sure of these translations?"

"Yup," Sol said, waving and leaving only three of the prophecies. "Based on my analysis of what's happened and our personalities, these are the three that I think are most likely correct. One of each, friends, neutral and enemies. You'll note that in every single version, Naman and Segeeth can only be translated as 'brother' or 'brothers', Lex. Unless you're a great deal more serious about me than I think you are, you're NOT Clark's brother."

Lex thought his heart and lungs stopped working. He felt the blood drain out of his face and his fingers went ice cold at the words. Sol blinked and stared at Lex, concern in his gray-green eyes as he reached over to gently touch Lex's cheek.

"You're more serious than I thought," Sol said quietly, wonder in his eyes. His hand was so warm against Lex's cheek. "I thought that you thought Joe was a child and Sol was a quick fling."

"No," Lex said, leaning into the hand, "Not at all."

For Lex, there had always been two categories of 'romance'. First was serious, and that meant females. Only females could be a wife, give him a child, a family like the one his father had destroyed for Lex. But his choices in females had always left much to be desired and he'd more or less given up on serious relationships. The second sort of 'romance' Lex indulged in was casual and that almost always meant males, preferably younger males. They took the sex as nothing more than sex, the presents as a bankroll for the future when he was gone and they certainly couldn't sue for paternity, not that one little gold digger hadn't tried.

His affairs with women were usually public and lasted a while. They always ended badly. His affairs with men were usually private, lasted days at most and ended well, the rare exception notwithstanding. Through Junior High on that was the way his life had worked and he was content with it. His father had never been, but his father had never been content with anything Lex did.

The only blip on Lex's radar had been Clark and Joe Kent. Clark had been the blip, fascinating Lex like no man ever had. He'd never admitted to Clark that there had been sexual interest from the start. Clark wasn't the sort of person to be comfortable with it. He'd barely been able to deal with their brief liaisons after Joe disappeared. Joe had been a shadow behind Clark that hadn't sparked interest at all until the day he'd come to deliver some produce and Lex had teased him as he frequently teased Clark, just hinting at sexual interest.

"Try me," had been Joe's response, with hot, carnal knowledge clear in his eyes and a seductive smile on his lips that had left Lex openly gaping. Joe had laughed, leaned over to whisper in Lex's ear. His breath had been warm on Lex's cheek and smelled of apples. "I haven't been a virgin for _years_."

Lex had said something entirely too garbled to have come from his mouth as Joe laughed and grinned that utterly wicked grin as he headed for the door. The look he raked Lex's body with had said he knew exactly what Lex had not-quite offered, had done it, enjoyed it and would be more than willing to do it again at any time or place of Lex's choosing.

"See you around, Lex," Joe had called and sauntered out of the mansion.

That had started Lex on considering Joe instead of Clark. It took quite a while for Lex to realize that underneath the shy, retiring exterior was a wicked, thoroughly wild and very open-minded man. Joe may have blended into the woodwork but the things that he did while there had surprised Lex. He'd tracked down former lovers, evenly split between males and females, all of who had quietly raved about him. He'd found metas and meteor-affected people that Joe had secretly helped, kept sane, protected. He'd found battles that Joe had fought that no one, not even Clark, knew about. And through it all, Joe had quietly flirted with Lex, while still pining for Chloe, too.

"You never took Joe seriously," Sol said quietly, moving closer to Lex and restarting Lex's heart abruptly. "No matter how Joe flirted, you never took him seriously."

"You were my friend's twin," Lex explained, wishing simultaneously for a parka and to be naked with Sol. "You didn't do more than flirt either."

"You were my twin's friend," Sol replied, laughing his wicked laugh. "I didn't want to ruin things for you and Clark. Not that I didn't think about it just about every night at bedtime and every morning, first thing. Even now, years later."

Lex closed the distance between them abruptly, pushing Sol back onto the pillows for another of those kisses that set Lex's spine on fire. Their clothes disappeared shortly thereafter and Lex learned that Sol's reputation and hinted promises were well justified. His kisses found places of pleasure on Lex's body that he hadn't known existed. His body was as perfect as it was possible to be, all except one scar on his left ribcage that made Sol wince and guide Lex's hands away.

"Sorry, hurts," Sol murmured and drove Lex's thoughts away from it for a good hour and a half.

His thoughts returned to the spot, as did his fingers as they lay cuddled in bed together while Lex cooled off and caught his breath. Sol flinched again at Lex's touch to the silver-dollar-sized scar. He sighed, answering the question in Lex's eyes.

"When Clark ran away to Metropolis after you married Helen," Sol said, "I tried to stop him. He'd just destroyed the spaceship that brought us here. I loved that stupid thing. It was my personal link to our homeworld and he destroyed it, despite my objections, despite my efforts to stop him. Mom lost her baby, Dad was … distraught, at best. He pissed off Chloe and cut nearly every tie he had to Smallville and the farm. Except me. He was going for his motorcycle and I tried to stop him. We got in a shouting match, then a shoving one. Then he hit me full strength."

Lex nodded, encouraging Sol as he went silent, remembering the fight.

"I hit back," Sol sighed, eyes clouded with remembered pain. "The fight was … the worst one I'd ever had, Lex. We were so mad, so hurt, that neither of us could bear to loose. But he hit me into a place where there had been a meteor strike. The radiation combined with my landing splintered my ribs and drove a chunk of Kryptonite into my side, right here. I passed out cold. He didn't come down in the valley where I lay. He didn't feel the Kryptonite, didn't know I'd been hurt like that. Dad found me hours later, following the trail of our battle with Pete, looking for the two of us."

Sol was shaking so Lex held him close. Sol curled into Lex's arms until the shaking stopped and his breathing calmed.

"They got the shard out," Sol whispered, "But a tiny sliver stayed stuck in my ribs. It was so little, just 1/16th inch wide, just enough to poison me but not enough to kill me or make it obvious I was being poisoned. It got trapped in my bones and couldn't be expelled. I hid it from Mom and Dad all summer. They were loosing the farm, so desperate to find Clark that they were spending money like water. Mom was still recovering from loosing the baby. I didn't want to tell them that I was loosing my powers. It was like low-grade pneumonia except that the bone there never healed. My ribs stayed broken in that spot. By the time Clark came back, I'd lost nearly 35 pounds. Morgan Edge's men hit me there and put me into a coma. He and Dad took me to the Kawatche caves and the AI removed the sliver, saving my life. But it took three days for me to wake up again, by which time everything seemed normal."

"It never healed all the way, did it?" Lex asked, frowning.

"It's still really sensitive," Sol said with a tiny shrug, "But the bones are solid. Hurts if I get hit there but there's no real damage."

"That's why things changed between the two of you," Lex observed, leaning on his elbow to study Sol's solemn face. "That's why you were frightened of him after I got back. That's why you ran away."

"Yes, yes and no," Sol said with a laugh. "I didn't run away. We were always supposed to be here on a mission. I accepted it and spent that year saying goodbye to being human, accepting my destiny. Clark fought it tooth and nail, all that year, while we were in the simulation in the cave's AI and ever since then. Such an idiot, it's not like it's a bad destiny. Save and protect the people of Earth, guide them to be like Krypton someday. But then Clark leaped to an assumption about what Jor-el wanted us to be and couldn't be budged from it. He's stubborn that way."

"So what's your mission as Segeeth?" Lex asked, running a hand over Sol's stomach and wishing his muscles were as perfect and effortlessly maintained.

"Find the enemies of Krypton," Sol said, eyes going lusty as Lex's hand strayed lower, "Neutralize them through whatever means necessary. Watch Kal-el and ensure he doesn't take the wrong path. Hopefully, find someone to share my life with and make little half-breeds but that's not working out so well right now. Maybe Clark and Lois will manage it, if they ever stop fighting with each other."

"You're certainly not going to manage that with me," Lex said and gasped as Sol pushed him back on the bed and nibbled his way down Lex's neck to his groin. "Not unless you have some Kryptonian science to brew one up.

"Well, there is that," Sol laughed against Lex's skin. "I think I can do it if the issue ever does come up."

The second round was better than the first, lasting considerably longer. Lex was amazed at Sol's sensitivity and endurance as a lover. He instantly knew if something he did felt good or bad to Lex and adjusted to Lex's needs. He took Lex to places that he'd never imagined, made him feel things he'd thought impossible, all the while looking at Lex as though he was a God come to Earth and the sexiest thing that had ever walked on two legs.

"I'm not sure I can survive being your lover," Lex said breathlessly as the sun came up and poured down on the two of them through his bedroom window.

"I'd never do more than you could bear," Sol said, licking Lex's stomach clean and sending shockwaves of arousal through Lex's exhausted body. "You can bear a lot more than you think."

"I can't bear the way you look at me," Lex whispered, running his fingers through the blue streaks in Sol's hair that framed his face.

"I can't bear not to look at you that way," Sol whispered back, capturing Lex's lips with his own to end the conversation for a while.

It was midmorning when they finally had breakfast, curled together on the couch: Coffee, pancakes, eggs, bacon and toast all made by Sol. Sol ate about three people's worth of food compared to Lex's moderate portion. He guessed that sunlight alone wasn't enough to sustain Sol, not with the organic nano-computer masquerading as a tattoo on his arm.

"Stay here with me," Lex murmured, not wanting to let Sol go for fear he'd disappear.

"Can't," Sol said, smiling that wonderful smile because Lex had asked. "You have work and so do I. I've only got two people left to capture, Lex. After that I can be whole and do the reunion thing with my family. It shouldn't be more than a month or so before I've caught them all."

"Stay with me after that," Lex asked, doing his best not to beg and not at all sure he'd succeeded.

"Ask me after I'm whole," Sol whispered, kissing Lex gently. "Asking now doesn't do any good. Everything will change after I've completed my mission, Lex. Both sides of me love you. We'll both want to stay once we're one again. But I can't promise until then, so ask me later when I can just be me."

"I will," Lex said, capturing Sol's hands so he couldn't flee, couldn't disappear. "And I won't take no for an answer."

+++++

Clark set out on his nightly patrol, starting with Metropolis, scanning for robberies, assaults, and all the normal disasters. Mom was on vacation, back on the farm but Clark still went out and did his patrols, despite her worries. He was just finishing up in Metropolis when he heard an odd confrontation that made him pause and backtrack to locate it. He wasn't sure at first what about the first voice caught his attention. Something was familiar and known but also very strange about that voice and he was compelled to find the speaker.

*Well, this is a pleasant surprise,* a deep, musically masculine voice was saying. There was such satisfaction in his voice that it made Clark frown. *I didn't expect to find you so easily.*

*Bugger off,* the second voice growled. This one barely sounded human. His voice was more like gravel in the surf or a robotic voice than a living person's. *Don't have time for you, meat-sack!*

*You don't have time for anything ever again,* the first voice said, laughing.

The crunch that followed had Clark flying as fast as he could, scanning to find the people involved. He'd heard that crunch before. Someone's bones had just been broken, badly. He waited to hear a scream, or at least a moan but it never came, just a meaty thud. He flew over the top of an old warehouse in time to see the body of one of the two people collapse to the ground on the street below. It was a private little confrontation in an alleyway with only one good light. The aggressor had chosen a perfect location, hidden from the street on both ends by dumpsters and protected from discovery by both building's lack of windows.

The one falling to the street as Clark arrived seemed to be the one with the gravely voice. He was big, burly and dressed in worn, second or third hand clothing. He also had a huge hole in his chest with dark blood that was quickly stopping as his body died. His eyes had a look of shock in them, even after death. His hands had curled into fists and his teeth, bared in a snarl frozen by death, had been filed to razor points that were stained by his death blood.

The one who'd obviously killed him stood over the body, a look of deep satisfaction on his face and a wicked, almost evil grin on his lips. His black hair was long, nearly to his waist in the back. There were two strands loose that framed his face. They'd been dyed a bright, almost electric blue. His left hand was covered in blood up to the elbow and he held something in his hand that pulsed almost like a heart. It squirmed and fought, tentacles trying to squirm free of the grip around it. Under his victim's blood the man had a tattoo stretching from his knuckles all the way up along his neck, reaching to his ear.

But it was the murderer's face that froze Clark in midair, making it impossible for him to swoop down and apprehend him. It was Joe. The murderer below him was his twin brother Joseph. Clark felt like his heart had stopped cold and he wanted to scream, wanted to cry, wanted to hug him and to bash him through the wall, all at the same time. He landed on the roof instead, trying to calm himself and figure out what had just happened below.

"Goodbye, Vez," Joe murmured, the tattoo starting to glow brightly. "You won't be harming anyone ever again."

The blood on Joe's hand burned off and then crystal formed in Joe's hand, wrapping around the tentacle-covered thing in Joe's hand. The creature screamed, the sound exactly the voice that Clark had heard on his way. Vez was the tentacle thing, not the body at Joe's feet. The crystal strengthened, thickened, grew into a solid covering, fed by the glow of Joe's impossible tattoo. The scream died and Joe sighed with relief, eyeing the crystal tiredly. He stepped away from the body on the ground as though it didn't matter, pulling out a cell phone and dialing.

"Hello?" Joe said, voice shaky and frightened though his face and body language were anything but. "I'd like to report a body. Yes, in the alley on 5th and Kessler. No, I don't know who it was. There was a scream and when I looked there was this body lying there with a hole in its chest. … Like hell I'm sticking around this thing!"

He clicked his phone off and chuckled, stretching, the crystal still in his left hand.

"That's that finally," Joe said and walked calmly out of the alley and across the street to a large custom motorcycle. He tucked the crystal into one of the saddlebags, put on his helmet and drove away, leaving Clark gaping. Sirens started up, getting closer, reminding Clark that he didn't want to be found hovering around the site of a dead body. He tracked the sound of Joe's motorcycle and set off after him, flying high to attempt to avoid both Joe's notice and anyone else.

Joe drove for a while, ending up in the parking garage of a major condominium high rise. He rode the elevator up to the penthouse and knocked on the door as Clark flew around to the side with windows. Clark settled on the building roof opposite and then gasped as he saw who lived there.

"Joe?" Lex Luthor said, laughing as Joe picked Lex up and twirled him around like a child. "Good news, I guess?"

"Congratulate me for I am victorious!" Joe said, grinning and running his fingers tenderly along Lex's jaw. "I have finally completed my mission and the last of The List have been apprehended!"

Joe pulled Lex into a passionate kiss that quite literally knocked Clark to his knees in pure shock. His mind couldn't comprehend what he was seeing. Joe could NOT be kissing and squeezing the butt of Lex Luthor. He couldn't! Clark hugged himself as he bit his lip and tried not to cry. This couldn't be happening.

Lex had been such a support when Joe disappeared 8 years ago. He'd searched, used all his resources, and done everything in his power to try and locate Joe. That Clark had returned and Joe hadn't seemed to tear Lex's heart out. Lex had been desperate for Joe to come back, Clark had thought. It had brought them back together as friends when the many plots and secrets that Lex held had driven them apart. But the secrets had continued and piled up and pretty soon they were true enemies.

Clark eventually came to believe that Lex killed his twin brother, though solid evidence had never been there. He couldn't prove it but he was sure that Lex had done something, had decided that Joe had to die after he confronted Lex about his 'obsession' room with Clark. Clark blamed himself. If he hadn't been so angry, hadn't ranted and carried on about it, Joe wouldn't have gone there and wouldn't have been killed. But obviously Clark had been wrong and Joe hadn't been dead. He'd been hiding, staying away from the family and farm, possibly with Lex. The thought only made Clark more bitter.

"Congratulations," Lex said, a little sadly. "I suppose that means you have to go home. I only got you to myself for a week and a half but I guess that's the way it should be. They've been missing you just as badly as I have."

"Yes, it's time," Joe said, putting the chunk of crystal that held Vez on the table with a thunk. "Did you get that Kryptonite I asked for?"

"Yes, I did," Lex said, clearly worried about Joe as he passed a very large lead box to Joe. "Are you sure this is necessary for you to get back to normal?"

"Yup," Joe said, setting the box on the table and then bracing himself before opening it. "It's the only way."

Clark started to his feet, horrified at the size of the bar of refined Kryptonite. It was huge and the glow transformed Lex's penthouse into a torture chamber as far as Clark was concerned. Even if he wanted to help Joe, now he couldn't. He would crash before he got through the window. Clark quivered, terrified for Joe, terrified for himself and completely sure that Joe was about to suffer and die at Lex's hands. Lex would surely take advantage of Joe's weakness as soon as the radiation hit him. He'd certainly tried it often enough with Clark since they became enemies.

Joe gasped as the radiation hit him, biting his lip before reaching out his tattooed hand to rest it on the Kryptonite. Clark would have been on the floor already but Joe only swayed, leaning against the table. His tattoo glowed more brightly than the sun and the green of the Kryptonite faded, transformed into a pure white light that soaked into Joe, making him shine like the sun itself. The glow faded and Joe collapsed. Lex caught him and eased him to the floor gently. Lex held Joe, whispering tender reassurances in Joe's ear. Clark shuddered, stomach curdling as Joe's arms curled around Lex tenderly.

"This is wrong," Clark whispered, swallowing hard and looking away. "This is so wrong!"

He _couldn't_ stay and watch his twin with Lex. Clark took to the air, flying straight up into the stratosphere. There had been a period right after Joe disappeared when Lex turned to Clark with something like love in his eyes. Clark had been lonely, hurting and unsure of himself without his twin at his side. He'd taken the hesitant flirting, the fragile sexual advances as Lex's odd way of reassuring Clark that he wasn't truly alone but now he thought he understood what they really were.

When they were in High School, Joe had been in love with Chloe. Chloe however had been in love with Clark and could only see Joe as 'Clark Mark 2', not as a separate person. It had driven Joe crazy, trying to get her to see him, not a reflection of Clark. He'd been uncomfortable with her every time they'd tried to date and unable to accept his place in her heart. Clark now understood how that had felt to Joe.

He'd been nothing but Joe Mark 2 for Lex and it burned in his gut.

He couldn't stand to stay high in the air for long and he couldn't continue his patrol, so Clark flew back home, back to the farm, back to his Mom who was sitting at the kitchen table, going through papers and writing letters. He was shaking he was so upset. His hands could barely open the door without damaging it.

"Clark?" Martha said, alarmed at the look on his face. "What's wrong?"

"Mom…" Clark said, mouth working and nothing coming out.

She left the table and came to his side, hugging him to try and calm him down. Clark shuddered and wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in her hair as though it was his only anchor in the world. At that moment, she truly was. Lois was in Asia and he needed comfort now, here, in this place that was home.

"Sweetie," Martha said once Clark let her go enough to let her look up at him, "What's wrong? You look so rattled."

"Mom, I … I saw … Joe," Clark said, only able to whisper the last word. He was shaking like a leaf as his mother stared up at him, hope and joy blooming in her eyes only to fade as she realized how upset he was.

"What's wrong?" Martha asked, petting his cheek.

"He … he killed someone, Mom," Clark said, trying not to let tears burn in his eyes and failing utterly. "I found him over a dead body with blood on his hand. He … he was grinning!"

Martha's mouth dropped open in shock and she stared up at Clark, clearly as unable to comprehend it as Clark was. One hand drifted to cover her mouth as her brow furrowed at Clark. Clark stiffened, hearing someone flying up. They both started at the sound of footsteps on the porch steps, making the second from the top stair creak. Two quick knocks that were almost feather quiet and the door opened.

"Hey," Joe said, looking utterly nervous and afraid, "I'm home."

He stepped inside, shutting the door gently behind himself. Clark held Martha back from rushing to Joe's side, not wanting to risk her if Joe really had gone bad. He really looked at Joe, still shaking. Joe was apparently doing well for himself. He was wearing an expensive leather bomber jacket, a knit black silk shirt and expensive charcoal grey slacks over nice leather shoes. Joe bit his lip, hesitated and opened his mouth for a second before shutting it.

"Joe," Martha breathed, pushing past Clark to go hesitantly to his side, studying his face as if she could see his soul in his eyes.

"Sorry I took so long to get home again," Joe said gently, tears in his eyes. "I missed you guys so fucking much!"

"Joe, language," Martha said, exasperated but laughing as she hugged him.

"Sorry," Joe said, laughing over her head to Clark.

There were oceans of apologies in his eyes, pleas for Clark to suspend judgment until Joe had explained. Clark bit his lip, looking away. He wanted to forgive, wanted to hug Joe and never let go but the image of him with that evil grin and blood on his hand was flashing behind Clark's eyes, evenly matched with the image of him being held tenderly by Lex. He squared his jaw and looked back at Joe, the look itself saying that there was too much to let go of. It was too soon for forgiveness for Clark. Joe nodded understanding, sad but accepting. Their little twin-conversation happened before Martha was done hugging Joe. She might not even have noticed it.

"How about cocoa while I explain?" Joe asked, grinning at Martha.

"You remember!" Martha laughed, patting Joe's stomach and heading into the kitchen.

"How could I forget?" Joe said, following her. "Cocoa is required for explanations! Has been since we were tiny."

He carefully skirted Clark as if afraid they might come to blows if they got too close. Clark swallowed as he realized that they might. He uncurled his fists and tried to relax his shoulders, but letting go of the tension drawing him tighter than a bowstring wasn't easy. Clark sighed, rubbing his face. This was so hard. He looked at Joe, surprised at the tender expression on his face as he watched their mother gather mugs, find the cocoa and set the kettle on the stove.

"Missed her?" Clark asked, almost sub-vocally.

"More than you'll ever know," Joe said, equally quietly. "Missed all of you so much I had to rewrite my personality to be able to stay away."

"Why?" Clark asked, all his pain, confusion, anger and sadness packed into that one word.

Joe met his eyes, showing Clark the same wash of emotions, with the addition of regret and deep determination. Why he'd left would be explained but he deeply regretted that he'd had to do it while still obviously feeling that it was vital. Clark frowned faintly, unable to come up with any reason sufficient to abandon the family.

"Why don't you start explaining while the kettle heats?" Martha said and then laughed as it started whistling. "Which of you was that?"

Joe and Clark looked at each other and grinned, suddenly back to normal before the moment faded.

"Both I think," Joe said before Clark could say anything.

They settled at the table, Martha clearing off her papers and letters, Joe stirring and dissolving his marshmallow. Clark just held his mug between his hands, waiting. He was still shaking faintly. He was afraid to touch Joe, afraid to talk to him, afraid all over. It was like one of his nightmares over the last 8 years, where Joe came back, everything was fine but as soon as Clark touched him, Joe faded away like mist. The blood on Joe's hand and Lex's kiss flashed in Clark's mind and he looked down into the cocoa, controlling a hard shudder. He couldn't look up, couldn't meet either of their eyes.

"So, what happened?" Martha asked, voice brusque and determined.

"Well, I might as well start at the beginning," Joe said, sipping his cocoa, "When Clark destroyed the spaceship—"

"That's the beginning?!" Clark asked, startled into looking at Joe despite his half-formed resolve not to.

"It's the beginning for me," Joe said, shrugging, "The beginning of why I left and why I stayed away."

"Oh," Clark said, blinking. The mug creaked in Clark's hands and he let go abruptly, not wanting to break it and spray cocoa all over the table.

Joe sighed and sipped his cocoa again before continuing. The destruction of the spaceship had apparently been as pivotal for Joe as it had been for Clark. To Clark's surprise, Joe had been communicating with it ever since they'd found out about it, learning things that he'd never told Clark about. When Clark destroyed it, he'd destroyed Joe's link to their past, their birth parents and their lost world. Then they'd fought and Clark had almost killed Joe accidentally before running away and leaving him bleeding.

"So, while you were gone," Joe said calmly, "My health degraded and I developed a full-blown phobia of you."

Clark felt like his guts had been cut out for the third time that night. He listened numbly as Joe described how he'd been voluntarily been implanted with a transmitter that let the AI in the caves communicate with him over the next year, how he'd agreed, freely, to leave home and 'accept his destiny'. Joe talked about that year so calmly, sipping at his cocoa and holding Mom's hand while she listened gravely. Clark felt like he was about to fly apart it was so hard to listen to.

"Then, Chloe was going into protective custody so she could testify against Lionel," Joe said, "And I really wanted to try and work out the 'Clark Mark 2' issue with her before I left. I went and talked to her and …"

Joe stopped, a wave of pain sweeping across his face that made Clark touch his shoulder gently. He understood that pain now, far too well. Joe smiled gratefully at him, nodding that he would be all right. Clark let his shoulder go and sipped at his now-cool cocoa to cover his hard swallow of pain. Joe caught it, frowning faintly at Clark. Clark shook his head minimally, nodding that Joe should continue his story.

"What happened?" Mom prompted.

"We … well it wasn't a good talk," Joe sighed, "Basically, it ended with Chloe giving me the 'we're just friends and that's all we'll ever be' and me walking out so I didn't yell or throw things or break down crying. Then I came home and Clark had his hissy fit about Lex's 'obsession' room."

"It wasn't a hissy fit!" Clark objected, blushing brightly.

"Trust me, Clark," Joe said, grinning wickedly at him, "It was a hissy. Even Mom thought it was a hissy at the time. Heck, Dad called it a snit fit, though he completely agreed with you about Lex. So … I agreed to go out and talk to Lex to calm Clark down. But that wasn't the real reason I went."

Clark tensed again. He knew, now, why Joe had gone. Having seen Joe with Lex, heard the way they talked to each other, seen them kiss, he knew. He had no idea how Mom would react. She'd never said anything one way or the other about homosexual relationships around Clark, so he had no idea what her views were. Politically she stayed neutral on the subject, judging each measure presented to her on its own merits.

"You were in love with him," Mom said quietly. "It always bothered your father. That's part of why we didn't say anything."

"You knew?" Clark and Joe said in unison, both shocked.

"Of course," Mom laughed, patting Joe's hand and smiling at Clark. "It was rather obvious. We thought it was a phase, that you'd get over it but I guess after Chloe treated you that way, it makes sense that you'd go to Lex."

Joe laughed, shaking his head in surprise. Clark was equally surprised, mouth dropped open. He'd had no idea that Joe liked guys, much less that he'd been in love with Lex. How could they have seen something in his twin that Clark hadn't?

"Oh, Mom," Joe laughed, leaning over and kissing her cheek, "You always could see straight through us! I thought I'd hidden it pretty well. Lex knew I was interested but didn't realize how interested until that day."

She blushed and patted his arm and Joe went back to his explanation. He'd seen the room, realized that Lex was obsessed with Clark alone and had his heart broken a second time that day. Clark's heart stopped for the umpteenth time at Joe's casual statement that Lex was in love with Clark, not him. He didn't really hear as Joe went on to describe his time in the AI's simulation. He didn't listen as Joe talked about Clark's battles with Jor-el or the disastrous return to reality that had apparently wiped his memory and personality. He didn't listen as Joe continued, explaining his tattoo and his mission to their mother. He was too wrapped up in a very simple and very painful thought.

Lex had loved Clark. The mug trembled in Clark's hands again as he tried to wrap his mind around the concept. He'd spent most of the last 8 years fighting Lex and convinced that he was Clark's greatest enemy. But maybe … the worst enemies were those that loved each other deep down. Clark set the mug down carefully, biting his lip. He'd accepted those advances, taken the hesitant love that Lex had offered but his inner self had never been comfortable with it and they'd been driven apart. Maybe Lex's many declarations that it was Clark who started the war between them were true after all.

"So it's a computer of sorts?" Mom was asking when Clark finally came back to reality.

"Yup," Joe said, "And it feeds off of my body, so I'm not fully invulnerable, or as strong and fast as Clark. Our powers are different now. I've got different ones and the ones we share are different in strength. Worth it, as far as I'm concerned. I kept my memories and I got to complete my mission."

"But that's done, right?" Mom said, nodding at Joe as if to make him nod too. "You're coming home and living as Joe Kent again, aren't you?"

Joe stilled, finishing off his cocoa and setting the mug down on the table with a sad look on his face. Clark stilled, not wanting to hear the answer that he knew Joe was going to give. Martha had her best and worst face on, the one that said she loved you utterly but you were breaking her heart. Joe swallowed and met her eyes relatively calmly, despite a quiver in his voice that Clark could easily hear.

"No, I'm not," Joe said.

+++++

"No, I'm not," Joe said, eyes sad but determined.

Martha's breath caught in her chest as Clark stiffened and Joe sighed. It had been 8 years, 7 months and 11 days since Joe disappeared. She'd spent the years since his disappearance trying to help Clark deal with being the last of his kind. It had been easier when they'd been together. They'd been able to reassure each other, help each other learn and back each other up in their far too frequent battles. After Joe disappeared, Clark had taken it so hard that Martha had often worried about him. No one had been able to fill that void in his life left by the loss of his twin, not friends, not family, not Lex nor Lana nor Lois.

"I have a career as an artist now," Joe said, shrugging minimally. "I'm doing really well and I love it. This is what I always wanted to do with my life. I love you all dearly, Mom, but I'm not going to give up my life's dream just to come back and be miserable on the farm."

"So you're just going to show up for one night and then disappear again?" Clark asked, looking so heart broken that Martha wanted to hold him and protect him.

"Of course not," Joe said, "I'm going to be around. Just not here-here, on the farm. I have an apartment and studio on Metropolis. There's showings and commissions to do and … Clark, why the bloody hell are you still living here, anyway?"

Martha blinked, surprised at the sudden change of topic.

"What do you mean?" Clark said defensively. "This is the family farm. Someone should be here, taking care of it."

"Someone," Joe said, snorting, "But it doesn't have to be you. Hire someone, for heaven's sake. Rent the house out and let the tenants take care of the farm. You're a great reporter and you're wasting your life out here on the farm."

"I'm not wasting my life!" Clark protested, the words weaker than they should have been.

Martha couldn't help but smile a little at that. She'd been saying the same thing to Clark for ages. It was well past the point that Clark should have left the farm and lived on his own but he clung to farm as though leaving it would cut him adrift for good. She thought that Clark felt that it was the last link he had to the happier days of their childhood, to Joe. Maybe he'd finally let go.

"Bull," Joe said, rolling his eyes. "I've been keeping track of you, all of you. And this place is stifling you, Clark! I know you love the farm and I know you want to keep it in the family but there's no reason in heaven or hell for you to live here."

"I can get to Metropolis or wherever quickly enough that it doesn't matter where I live," Clark said, looking away from them both. His shoulders were so hunched that Martha knew it was just an excuse.

Joe snorted, clearly seeing the excuse as well. He shook his head, going to drink more cocoa and then realizing that it was gone. He set the mug back down with a little more force than was necessary but not hard enough to break it or the table.

"Since when did you become a murderer?" Clark demanded as Joe opened his mouth to continue.

"Huh?" Joe said, visibly perplexed.

"I saw you tonight!" Clark burst out, all his upset pouring out in an instant. "I saw you with blood on your hands and a dead body at your feet, Joe. You killed a man and GRINNED! When did you change so much that killing became acceptable?!"

Martha opened her mouth, reaching for Clark's hand to try and calm him down. She didn't want them to fight again. Their last true fight had all but killed Joe. Joe just cocked his head in confusion, studying Clark for a long moment as he tried to figure out what he meant.

"Oh, you mean Vez?" Joe said, blinking in puzzlement at Clark. "Clark, that body was dead already. It had been dead for three days. Vez takes over a body, usually a transient's body, and uses it like a puppet, from the inside. He can only stay in a body for about 3 ½ to 4 days, though, so he's left a trail of dead bodies from San Francisco to Metropolis. He disappears into the sewers between bodies and it's almost impossible to find him then. I've tracked the little monster for almost a year and finally, _finally_ caught him tonight."

"Th-the … body was already dead?" Clark said, all the heat gone from his voice and eyes.

"Yup," Joe said, shrugging. "Didn't you see how weird the blood was? All dark and chunky instead of red and fluid? That's because the body was just barely moving at Vez's directions. He kills the person, burrows into their chest, replaces the heart and lungs and links to the nervous system. Then he files the person's teeth to points and eats any meat he can get his hands on to keep the body going, living, dead, animal or human. He's a nasty little parasite that was accidentally let loose on Earth about 60 years ago. He's been killing ever since then."

Clark's mouth worked and he turned away again, shaking his head in confusion. Martha wasn't sure what was wrong but it was something far more than just finding Joe over a body. She took Clark's hand, squeezing it tightly and got a thankful if hurting look of thanks from him. Joe sighed, leaning back in his chair, arms crossed on his chest as he studied Clark.

"If you saw that," Joe said quietly but rather coldly, "Then you almost certainly saw me with Lex, didn't you? That's what you're really upset about."

"Lex?" Martha asked, surprised. "What does Lex Luthor have to do with this?"

"He found me about a week and a half ago," Joe said, eyes and lips far too tight as he met Martha's eyes.

"And you promptly picked up where you'd left off, didn't you?" Clark growled, glaring at his twin. "Moved in and became his lover, just like he was my best friend still."

Joe sighed, clearly annoyed at his twin.

"He was always my dream guy," Joe said firmly, "And you were the one who became his lover after I disappeared and then dumped him, Clark. You have no right to be jealous of us now that we finally managed to get together!"

"What?!" Martha said, astonished.

Joe and Clark exchanged angry glances that were whole conversations while Martha tried to catch her bearings. Their twin-speak had been a challenge at first but she'd eventually gotten the hang of interpreting much of it. This time Joe was saying something on the order of 'it's your fault, you're the one who brought Lex up' while Clark was so blazing mad that he was almost vibrating.

"I knew that the two of you got close," Martha said quietly, squeezing Clark's hand, "But I didn't realize that you'd gotten that close, Clark. No wonder things got so difficult for the two of you later."

"He never loved ME!" Clark exploded, dropping her hand and standing abruptly. "I could feel it at the time but I never knew why until I saw the two of them together. It wasn't me that he was making love to! It was Joe. He … he was trying to replace Joe with a copy. Me."

Clark ran out of steam and turned away from them, shoulders dropped in the way that said he was fighting tears. Joe stared, mouth dropped open for a long moment. Martha thought that he couldn't quite believe it, couldn't accept what Clark was saying.

"Oh crap," Joe said, flinching from Martha's stern look. "You were Joe Mark 2? I'm so sorry, Clark, I thought that he'd just gone back to his original thing with you. You do realize that he was interested in you first, don't you? He barely knew I existed."

"Towards the end, he barely knew I existed," Clark said sadly, still turned away. "He was so obsessed with finding you and … God, every time he touched me it hurt because he had the most lost and despairing expression on his face. I really thought he'd killed you, Joe. If you were watching, how could you let us think that? How could you let us think you were dead for 8 years?!"

Clark turned back to Joe, all the pain and loss still there in his face and eyes. Martha sighed. This was going to be one of the winding, confusing arguments, she saw.

"It was the only way to save your life," Joe said completely calmly and utterly seriously.

"What do you mean?" Martha said, frowning. "You said that you were on a mission but you never said what it was."

"I was on a mission," Joe said sighing and taking her hand comfortingly. "I was sent to capture specific metas and Kryptonian escapees, put them into suspended animation and make sure that they'd never be a threat to Clark. I did it willingly. Granted, it was a huge list but I never expected it to take 8 years to finish the job. Maybe a year or so but not 8 years."

"That doesn't explain why you stayed away," Clark said coldly. "You could have done that from here. You could have come home and we could have done it together."

Joe shook his head firmly, disagreeing utterly with Clark. Martha gave Clark a look to say, please sit down and quit hovering. Clark sighed and sat, mouth set mulishly and frowning at Joe. Martha wasn't sure that he'd ever forgive Joe for leaving, no matter how good his explanation might be. Joe had abandoned his twin, let him think that he was dead, and not even tried to call home once.

"If Vez had encountered you," Joe said, studying Clark, "He would have gone straight through your supposedly invulnerable skin and taken over your body. He was a Kryptonian parasite, Clark. He had to struggle to use humans but a Kryptonian would have been perfect. The tattoo made it impossible for him to control me but you would have been easy game for him. Think about it, a cannibal Clark, with all your powers, flying around and eating whoever he wanted. In a Kryptonian body, he wouldn't have had to switch bodies. The body would have survived the takeover, letting him stay there forever."

Clark and Martha both went pale at that. It wasn't a thought that Martha liked. In fact, the more she thought about it the more nauseous it made her. Clark looked positively green and Joe pressed his advantage, meeting Clark's eyes intently.

"Vez is just one of the people on The List," Joe said seriously, "Just one monster that could have used your body against you and the world. The others on The List were just dangerous in general. Some were so immortal that you couldn't beat them into submission, Clark. I was given powers that you don't have so that I could deal with them."

"I still could have helped," Clark said quietly, heart in his eyes.

"And risk Mom and Dad?" Joe countered angrily. "I told you about the guy at Dad's funeral. He was strong enough to kill you, Clark. Can you imagine what he would have done to Mom and Dad? What about Lana? Lois? The whole town, for that matter. I would NOT risk their lives. If I were someone else, Solomon El, then they would track down my fake family, all of who agreed to do it and who are very powerful metas. Two of them died, Clark, despite their powers. I could not risk our family and friends. I would not."

Clark and Joe shared a moment of twin-speak that completely eluded Martha's comprehension. They looked at each other for a long, long time, faces barely moving, bodies barely twitching. But Martha could see that they were talking, somehow sharing some sort of communication. Not for the first time she wondered if they might not be telepathic with each other, if not with anyone else. The moment broke with Clark sighing and nodding sadly. Joe reached out to Clark and suddenly they were hugging, clinging to each other tightly. Martha sighed with relief. The worst was over, she hoped.

"So what about Lex?" Clark asked once they let go.

"What about Lex?" Joe asked, frowning. "You two seem to be pretty solidly enemies now. I didn't think that you'd want anything to do with him anymore."

"If you're going to be … together with him," Clark said, swallowing hard against deep emotion, "I'm going to run into him, Joe. I won't stay away, not now that you're back. It's going to be really awkward, to say the least, when we encounter each other."

Joe flinched, making a face. Martha couldn't help but hide a smile at that. Joe had always been a little dense that way. He was so good at smoothing conflicts over that he tended to forget that others didn't share the skill. Joe leaned back in his chair again, looking at the ceiling as he thought. It made his long hair swing out and Martha couldn't help but laugh.

"What?" Joe asked, looking at her quizzically.

"Your hair," Martha said, shrugging a little embarrassed. "It just that I never would have thought that you'd grow it out. When you were little you always wanted it cut so short."

"I wanted to look different from Clark," Joe shrugged, "Both when I was little and now. Took forever to get you to let me have a different haircut from him. So when I was on my own I played with my hair and ended up liking it long."

Joe sighed again, rubbing his bottom lip thoughtfully. He seemed to reach some inner decision after a moment. He looked at Clark seriously; making Clark straighten up and study him, trying to determine what Joe had come up with. Martha studied him, too. Joe usually did come up with creatively elegant solutions to problems, unlike Clark's very straightforward ones.

"Why don't we just ask Lex what he thinks?" Joe asked.

+++++

Lex sat in front of his piano, pretending that he was going to play. He always found it calming to play the piano and once Joe had left, Lex had felt a desperate need for some calm. But once he'd sat at the keyboard, rested his fingers on the keys, he couldn't find a song to play. He couldn't think of a note, a tune, even a snatch of melody. His fingers were trembling, Lex realized as he watched them resting listlessly over the keyboard.

He won't come back, Lex thought, Joe will go back to his twin and he won't come back to you. The thought like having his heart torn out and burned in front of him.

The piano jangled at him as his hands smashed into the keys. Lex shuddered, knuckles white and shoulders aching. He'd thought he was ready for this. He'd had a week and a half with Sol, a week and a half of real happiness after a lifetime of loneliness, suspicion and anger. He'd tried so hard not to get attached to Sol, to Joe, because he knew that Joe wasn't going to stay.

"I thought I was ready for this," Lex whispered, head bent over the keyboard. His eyes were burning but he refused to let himself cry. "I thought I was ready."

"Ready for what?" Joe asked, a faint whoosh of air the only warning that he'd arrived.

A second whoosh made Lex whip around and stare. He stiffened automatically to see Clark behind Joe. Joe came over and caught Lex's face, turning it up for a gentle, loving kiss that almost made Lex whimper deep in his chest. He rested a hand on Joe's chest, feeling the hard muscle underneath with a painful twinge in his chest. Joe let him go, turning back to Clark. Lex was surprised at the expression on Clark's face.

Jealous, Lex thought with wonder, Clark's jealous.

Well, of course he's jealous, Lex thought in the next instant, I'm taking his twin away from him if this goes any further.

"Will you stop that?" Joe said, rolling his eyes at Clark. "We're here to talk it out, quit sulking about it."

"I'm not sulking," Clark said, flashing an angry glance at Joe. "And I don't see what there is to talk about. It's over and done with. We're enemies and that's all there is to it."

Clark turned to leave and Joe reached out and snagged his ear in his thumb and forefinger, hauling on it hard enough to make Clark squawk and stop mid-step.

"I mean it, quit sulking because you pushed him away," Joe said sternly.

"Wait, what are you two here for?" Lex asked, suddenly hopelessly confused. This wasn't going at all as he'd expected when he first saw Clark behind Joe.

"We're here because Clark's still in love with you," Joe said gently, "Though he wouldn't admit it, and because something has to be worked out. I'm not going to stop seeing either of you. You both mean too much to me for that."

Lex felt like Joe had punched him in the gut with that statement. In love with Lex? Lex felt like he was in a fog for a long moment and then his mind started working again. Clark hadn't been jealous of Lex. He'd been jealous of Joe! That made no sense whatsoever, not after everything that had happened between the two of them. After all their battles the last several years, there was simply no possibility that Clark could have any love left in him for Lex.

"You pushed me away," Lex said quietly, pulling on his emotionless mask. It was the only way he could deal with them both right now. "You ended it, Clark, not me."

"I couldn't deal with being Joe Mark 2," Clark admitted quietly, looking anywhere but Lex and Joe. "I could tell that you were thinking of Joe when you touched me and I … couldn't deal with that."

That little tidbit of truth hurt more than Lex was willing to admit even to himself. Especially since it was true. Clark _had_ been a replacement for Joe, especially in the beginning. But Clark hadn't been Joe, couldn't be Joe and despite the deep affection that Lex had felt for Clark, he had never felt the same blazing passion for Clark that he had for his lost twin brother. Clark had become special in his own way, but he had always been compared to his brother.

And found wanting, Lex admitted privately. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose against the sudden headache that pounded his forehead.

"What do you expect of us, Joe?" Lex asked, hearing the hostility in his voice with surprise.

"Not a lot," Joe said, shrugging. "Maybe some hot make-up sex while I watch and help out."

Lex and Clark both made horrified squawking noises, staring at Joe with their jaws dropped open. Joe laughed, delighted, grinning that utterly wicked grin that had always made Lex want to take him right there and then. Lex looked at Clark and blushed, realizing that Clark was looking at him with a far too interested expression.

"You're serious," Lex said, astonished.

"Now admit it," Joe purred, leaning over to run his hands over Lex's head, down his neck, over his shoulders and around his back, "You've thought about twincest with the two of us, haven't you? One of us in front and the other behind? Taking and being taken by the Kent boys…"

Lex moaned, eyes shutting as Joe found all those places that set Lex off, milking them like a pro. Lex gasped when he realized that Clark was watching with a fascinated stare, his pants tented out at the sight of his twin brother making love to his greatest enemy. Those still mostly-innocent, fascinated eyes, watching Lex getting harder and harder made Lex shudder, flushing red all over his scalp and out to the tips of his ears. Clark wanted it, wanted Lex, wanted to do it with him.

"Oh God!" Lex gasped, clutching Joe's shoulders and making him laugh. "I can barely survive you. How the hell could I survive both of you?"

"I couldn't!" Clark protested, biting his lip and almost moving to adjust his pants, stopping the movement to fist his hands at his sides. "I'd hurt him, Joe. I couldn't."

"So let him take you," Joe murmured, pulling Lex around so that his crotch was on display to Clark, Joe behind him, stroking his erection. "Take instead of give, Clark. You know you give far too much. Let Lex take care of you while I take care of him."

The want in Clark's eyes made Lex whimper, clutching Joe's hand on his fabric-wrapped cock. The few times they'd tried anything sexually it had only been manual or oral, never actual penetration. Clark had been too afraid of hurting Lex, too afraid of his own strength to take that next step and Lex hadn't been satisfied with less than that. Lex panted, unsure how Joe had changed things so utterly and so quickly. To take 4 years of bitter hatred and turn it into lust in minutes was beyond astonishing. It was mind-blowing, just like Joe's hand on Lex's cock and his mouth on Lex's neck.

Lex looked at Clark, his masks well and truly destroyed by Joe. He'd been so angry over the years, not just because he'd believed that Clark killed Joe. Lex had killed. He knew what could happen in moments of extreme passion. He would been able to forgive that, Lex admitted privately, if only Clark had stayed, been there by his side. He'd been so alone after Clark and Joe left, so bitter and angry at the world. If he'd been able to accept Clark for Clark, Lex thought as he panted in time to Joe's strokes, maybe they'd never have become enemies.

"C-Clark…" Lex whispered, voice husky with lust while his eyes apologized for everything that had driven them apart. It might not work in the future but maybe for tonight they could forgive and forget.

Clark was there before he'd finished the word, his mouth hot and passionate on Lex's, flavored by tears and deep sorrow. Lex wrapped his arms around Clark's neck, kissing him back the way they'd never kissed before, the way he'd only kissed Joe. It was so different with Clark, but so wonderful at the same time. Where Joe pushed, Clark entreated. Joe dominated and Clark submitted, firing Lex's lust to another level. Clark was submitting to him!

"Do want you," Clark admitted in a tiny whisper when their mouths finally parted, "But …"

"No buts," Joe said firmly, "Bedroom. Now!"

"And I thought I was the dominant one," Lex laughed breathlessly as Joe picked him up and carried him into the bedroom over one shoulder, one hand hauling the spluttering and blushing Clark.

"Not half as dominant as I am," Joe laughed, setting Lex down on the bed. "I was always that way, though Clark was always better at being the social twin. Clark was bright and cheerful but always did what others wanted. I, on other hand, ALWAYS did what I wanted."

"Pushy," Clark chuckled, face blazingly red as Joe set Lex down on the bed and pulled off his shirt.

"Yup," Joe said, grinning his wicked grin. "Now strip, you. I want to see you and Lex naked together in bed."

"Oh god!" Lex and Clark said in unison, with the exact same breathlessly lusty tone of voice.

Lex groaned as Joe stripped him bare, mouth hot and wet on every bit of flesh exposed. He started as Clark joined Joe, tentatively kissing Lex's neck. He was naked, just like Lex, stripped of all the hate and anger and hurt by Joe's demanding love. They looked into each other's eyes for an instant and then they were kissing. Lex groaned into Clark's mouth, his tongue probing Clark's mouth, flirting with his teeth, tangling with his tongue. It was different, it was hot, it was perfect.

"Clark," Lex husked when their mouths parted.

He gasped as Joe wrapped his lips around Lex's erection, swallowing Lex whole. Clark watched, fascinated and wide-eyed. It was incredible watching Clark watching Joe, Lex thought, barely able to bear what Joe was doing to him.

"Want you," Lex demanded, pulling at Clark's hips until Clark moved and gave Lex his erection to suck on. It had been forever and no time at all, Lex thought, since he'd last done this with Clark. He groaned, realizing that he'd taken this step with Clark before he'd done it with Joe. Joe had been a dream, a blazing, fascinating dream, but Clark had been real and Lex had compared him to that dream. No wonder Clark had ended it. No one deserved that sort of burden.

Joe slipped the little bottle of lube into Lex's hand and started working on preparing Lex. Lex groaned and set to work on preparing Clark. They were really going to do it, Lex thought, sucking on Clark as though he wanted to swallow him whole. He blindly slicked up his fingers and found Clark's ass, rubbing the lube on him.

"Ahhh!" Clark gasped, hands warm on Lex's head. "Oh God yes!"

Clark cried out and came hard as Lex slid a finger into his ass. Lex swallowed, his hips bucking into Joe's mouth. It only took a second longer for Lex to join Clark. Joe chuckled and swallowed it all. Lex let go of Clark's cock, panting. Joe was grinning, still working on Lex's ass.

"Don't stop," Clark said breathlessly to Lex, "Please?"

"I won't," Lex said, pushing Clark back on the bed and making him spread his legs. "Not until I'm done with you."

"Yes," Clark groaned, trembling with excitement.

By the time Joe pronounced Lex ready, Clark was whimpering and moaning nonstop, calling out Lex's name. Lex gasped as Joe pushed into his body, barely able to believe this was happening. Clark's expression as Lex readied to push into him was beyond anything Lex could have imagined, sweet, fearful, hopeful, loving, apologetic and so utterly submissive that Lex shuddered.

"Yes, please!" Clark gasped, eyes shutting with pain/pleasure as they finally consummated after all the years of friendship, then dating, then enmity. "PLEASE!"

"So fucking hot," Joe moaned into Lex's ear, moving harder and faster into his ass. "Love seeing the two of you together!"

"Oh g-god, J-Joe," Clark whimpered, hands roaming Lex's body. "I-it feels so good! Hurts so good!"

Lex cried out, head flung back. He could never have imagined this, never could have prepared himself for this. It was beyond imagining, beyond anything that could ever exist. Their bodies moved and flexed as one, sandwiching Lex in more pleasure than he'd ever experienced. Joe's touch was so masterful and so erotic. He controlled both Lex and Clark, dominating them so wonderfully. Clark submitted to it all, clearly loving being dominated as much as Joe loved doing the domination. They fed both halves of Lex's soul, the half that wanted to control and the half that wanted to be controlled. When orgasm came, it came for them all. Lex was sure that the neighbors heard them yell and it only made him yell louder.

"Never … that good … before," Clark panted, holding Lex tenderly.

"Agreed," Lex said, resting on his broad chest, marveling that he wasn't sweaty. Given what he was, Lex supposed it made sense that he wouldn't be sweaty after this. He was breathless however. He'd done that to Clark, which gave him a huge feeling of pride.

"Make up sex is the best sex," Joe laughed breathlessly, pulling out and settling next to them on the bed. "So … I am hoping this isn't a one-time thing. Are you two going to try again?"

Lex blinked and looked at Clark. Clark looked frightened but hopeful. Lex controlled a smile, leaning on Clark's broad chest to run a finger down his cheek. Clark blushed faintly but smiled at Lex, that wonderful bright smile that had attracted Lex's attention so many years ago.

"I think that it … could work," Lex said quietly, leaning over with his lips close to Clark's. "Maybe."

"Yes," Clark said, closing the gap and kissing Lex tenderly.

"Hallelujah," Joe said laughing and joining the cuddle, "About damn time! I'd much rather love on you two than have to crack your heads together to get you to let it go."

Clark laughed, reaching a hand out to tug at Joe's now-messy hair. They grinned at each other, sharing a moment of twin-speak that Lex was determined to learn to interpret. He had no idea what they were saying to each other but it seemed to be hesitant, then amused and disgusted. They both shook their heads, laughing.

"What?" Lex asked, raising an eyebrow at them.

"You're going to be getting all of our love, Lex," Joe said, kissing him fiercely.

"Because there's no way we're going to be making love to each other," Clark continued, claiming a gentle, loving kiss from Lex's lips. "That's so wrong!"

"Could be very hot," Lex said consideringly, "In a very, very wrong sort of way, of course.

Joe laughed, hugging Lex. Clark grinned, wrapping his arms around Lex, too. Lex sighed happily, relaxing in the double embrace. He'd started the evening convinced he'd be alone forever, that he was going to loose Joe and instead he'd gotten more than he'd ever dreamed. He had Joe but he also had Clark back, better than ever before.

"Why did it take so long to get to this point?" Lex wondered quietly as they started dropping off to sleep, tangled together.

"No Joe," Clark murmured sleepily.

"And too stubborn to bend and apologize," Joe sighed, "Get some sleep, you guys. There's a whole lifetime for us to live, starting tomorrow."

Lex smiled, settling down between them and falling asleep almost instantly. There was a lifetime ahead of him and for the first time in years, it wasn't a thought that made him angry and bitter. Whether this worked or not, Lex was sure that they'd all grown enough that they could make it work, no matter how hard it got.


End file.
